Mobama says countries must defend tolerance and respect or risk chaos and violence

Former US president says countries must defend tolerance, moderation and respect for others or risk chaos and violence in speech in Indonesia

Barack Obama urges world to stand against 'aggressive nationalism'

Barack Obama told an audience in Jakarta: ‘It’s been clear for a while that the world is at a crossroads

Barack Obama has called on the world to stand up for tolerance, moderation and respect for others – warning that sectarian politics could lead to chaos and violence.

The former US president said some countries had adopted “an aggressive kind of nationalism” and “increased resentment of minority groups”, in a speech in Indonesia on Saturday that could be seen as a commentary on the US as well as Indonesia.

“It’s been clear for a while that the world is at a crossroads. At an inflection point,” Obama said, telling a Jakarta crowd stories of how much the capital had improved since he lived there as a child.

But he said that increased prosperity had been accompanied by new global problems, adding that as the world confronts issues ranging from inequality to terrorism, some countries – both developed and less developed – had adopted a more aggressive and isolationist stance.

“If we don’t stand up for tolerance and moderation and respect for others, if we begin to doubt ourselves and all that we have accomplished, then much of the progress that we have made will not continue,” he said.

“What we will see is more and more people arguing against democracy, we will see more and more people who are looking to restrict freedom of the press, and we’ll see more intolerance, more tribal divisions, more ethnic divisions, and religious divisions and more violence.”

Obama was born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, but after she married an Indonesian, the family moved to Jakarta in 1967 when he was six, and stayed for four years. The 44th US president made sure the crowd knew he could still speak some Indonesian.

Islamist groups had organised mass rallies to demand his imprisonment, and his sentence shocked his many liberal supporters around the country, leading analysts to question whether the stability of Indonesia’s plural democracy might be under threat from racial or religious tensions.

Obama called Widodo “a man of quiet but firm integrity and someone who sincerely wants to do what’s right for all Indonesians” and then made comments which a delighted crowd interpreted to be critical of how Ahok had been treated.

“My stepfather … was raised a Muslim but he respected Hindus and he respected Buddhists and he respected Christians,” he said, adding: “If you are strong in your own faith then you should not be worried about someone else’s faith.” The line earned raucous applause.

Obama never mentioned Donald Trump by name, but he chose a range of topics that could be seen to apply to politics in both Indonesia and the US, including fake news powered by social media, resentment, attacks on institutions, and ignorance of other peoples.

When asked about Trump’s exit from the Paris climate deal by Dino Patti Djalal, former ambassador to the US and organiser of the Indonesia Diaspora Conference, Obama sought to downplay the move’s impact.

“First of all, I think it’s important that even though the current US administration has signalled it is going to pull out, technically it’s not out yet,” he said. “Point two is that many of the changes that we locked in during my administration continue.”

Coming back to the overarching theme of “unity in diversity” – Indonesia’s official national motto – Obama warned again where a different path could lead.

“Let’s face it, if people do not show respect and tolerance, eventually you have war and conflict. Sooner or later societies break down.”

On March 8, 1965, the first American combat troops – the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade – waded as**** at China Beach north of Da Nang. There had already been limited U.S.naval action, and the bombing of North Vietnam had commenced. There were also 23,000 military advisors already on the ground.Mar 8, 2013

n February 1954, President Eisenhower refused to commit American troops to the Franco-Vietnamese War. In a press conference he stated, "I cannot conceive of a greater tragedy for America than to get heavily involved now in an all-out war in any of those regions."2 By April, however, his administration revisited the question of direct intervention in the war. Though he sent no U.S. troops to the region, he authorized military aid to the French. After France surrendered to the Viet Minh, Eisenhower's administration aided anti-communist leader Ngo Dinh Diem in consolidating power in Saigon. Throughout his second term as president, Eisenhower remained committed to Diem's often-tyrannical regime.

That's easy, YOU. You're also a deflector. What's there to deny? The wars belong to you Dems.

Gifted, again I ask, would you list the wars that the democrats have started in the last 50 years.

OK JT for the Record

WWI War was declared by Woodrow Wilson Democrat

WWII was FDR Democrat

Korean War Harry S Truman Democrat

Vietnam War Dwight D Eisenhower Republican

Gulf War G.H. Bush Republican

Iraq War G.W. Bush Republican

So 50/50

Actually Vietnam is also owned by Truman with a little co-ownership by Kennedy and a lot of ownership by LBJ. Truman promised the French whatever aid that they needed would be given and Eisenhower's contribution was that he honored Truman's commitment and allowed the French to pull their whipped butts out of Indochina after Dien Bien Phu. Kennedy gets some ownership because de Gaulle released the US from it's promise:

“You will find,” I said to him, “that intervention in this area will be an endless entanglement. Once a nation has been aroused, no foreign power, however strong, can impose its will upon it. You will discover this for yourselves. For even if you find local.leaders who in their own interests are prepared to obey you, the people will not agree to it, and indeed do not want you. The ideology which you invoke will make no difference. Indeed, in the eyes of the masses it will become identified with your will to power. That is why the more you become involved out there against Communism, the more the Communists will appear as the champions of national independence, and the more support they will receive, if only from despair.

“We French have had experience of it. Yott Americans wanted to take our place in Indochina. Now you want to take over where we left off and revive a war which we brought to an end. I predict that you will sink step by step into a bottomless military and political quagmire, hOwever much you spend in men and money. What you, we and others ought to do for unhappy Asia is not to take over the running of these States ourselves, but to provide them with the means to escape from the misery and humiliation which, there as elsewhere, are the causes of totalitarian regimes. I tell you this in the name of the West.”

Obama the hypocrite talking about tolerance and respect in countries that have no tolerance or respect for anyone. But neither does he or the Sasquatch he calls a wife. He's showing his true anti-American colors full out now. If anything the US has been too tolerant and with the help of Democrats and people like Obama, that's what allowed foreigners to drag us down.

Obama the hypocrite talking about tolerance and respect in countries that have no tolerance or respect for anyone. But neither does he or the Sasquatch he calls a wife. He's showing his true anti-American colors full out now. If anything the US has been too tolerant and with the help of Democrats and people like Obama, that's what allowed foreigners to drag us down.

Kraven and Hiflyer, those postings are accurate, I think. However I did ask for the last 50 years.

Gifted, read your co-horts postings and call them all the things you call me.

Why should I call them names? You and your co-horts are trying to destroy our country, so you deserve every thing you get. Besides that, you do plenty of name calling and outright lying about what others post.

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